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Our series of online, candid conversations brings together city builders of all stripes to discuss what’s working, what’s not and what’s next for urban communities across Canada.

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  • Let’s Talk About Placemaking: Scaling Impact, Building Community

    Placemaking is a powerful tool for fostering connection, strengthening local identity, and enhancing public spaces in ways that resonate with people’s lived experiences. It also plays a crucial role in helping communities recover from crises. The discussion highlighted placemaking as an instinctive and universal concept that transcends geography, culture, and history. Ryan Smolar underscored its…

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  • Let’s Talk About Placemaking

    The title of this episode is shared with a report called Let’s Talk About Placemaking recently released by the Canadian Urban Institute. It compiles the findings from thousands of community-level placemaking projects along with perspectives on placemaking from leading practitioners, including Jerome Barth of Belleville Placemaking (NYC) and Marc-André Carignan of Kollectif (Mtl.) featured in…

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  • Good Neighbours, Strong Regions: Cultivating Regional, Cross-border Strategies to Build Local Economies

    The discussion highlighted the growing importance of cross-border and regional cooperation in strengthening local economies. Panellists emphasized that economic regions often span provincial and national borders, creating both challenges and opportunities. For example, Isabelle Veilleux noted that while Gatineau and Ottawa are physically close, differing regulations complicate labor mobility and transit systems. Strengthening collaboration across…

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  • When Global Hits Local: Navigating Tariffs on Canada’s Main Streets

    Mayor Justin Towndale of the City of Cornwall highlighted how deeply intertwined Canadian border communities are with their American neighbors. He emphasized that municipalities must address local challenges like housing, healthcare, and economic pressures while navigating the impact of tariffs and trade disruptions. Having already met with some of his peers in New York State,…

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  • From Policy to Prosperity: Local Economic Development That Works

    Panelists agreed that consumers are wielding significant power over the economy, particularly as they grapple with financial pressures. Gordon Stevens noted that consumers “start to talk and act with their pocketbooks” when facing challenges. Shelley Carroll echoed this, stating that “the consumer really is the boss right now,” emphasizing that their spending choices (or lack…

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  • Local Matters: Community Wealth Building

    Bolstering Canada’s local economies has become an instant priority in the wake of proposed actions by the Trump administration. Fortunately, we have no shortage of smart people with innovative solutions already in the works.

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  • Local Matters: The View from the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce

    Host Mary Rowe welcomes another ‘tariff/no tariff’ conversation with Doug Griffiths and Heather Thomson of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, and frank talk about what could, and what shouldn’t, happen in this moment of economic uncertainty (crisis? opportunity?) for communities across Canada.

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  • Local Matters: Supporting Community Businesses

    We interrupt CUI’s post-State of Canada’s Cities Summit programming for some timely conversation about economic resilience. There’s nothing like the wake-up call of a looming Canada-US trade war to focus the attention of communities everywhere on innovative strategies to generate local strength and reduce impacts of cross-border disruptions.

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  • Culture, Equity, and Infrastructure: Conversations from the Summit

    Mention infrastructure, and it’s hard not to picture things like public buildings, transit systems and water/power distribution. However, other vital elements of urban society are, or should be, integrated into those things and need to be part of their design.

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  • Building Better, Building Beautiful: Conversations from the Summit

    The dozen panel discussions recorded in December 2024 on Day One of CUI’s State of Canada’s Cities Summit revolved around urban infrastructure in all its modern permutations, and how we need to build it better, faster and more sustainably. However, that doesn’t preclude its ability to also add beauty and contribute to our collective well-being.…

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  • Designing Cities, Day and Night: Conversations from the Summit

    The Canadian Urban Institute’s mobile podcast studio at the State of Canada’s Cities Summit in Ottawa last December offered CUI staff the opportunity to chat with some of the leading voices attending the event.

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  • Resilience and Innovation: Conversations from the Summit

    More forward-thinking discussions on infrastructure from CUI’s State of Canada’s Cities Summit, these the first of several recorded by our mobile podcast studio.

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